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Every student deserves to be heard in the classroom, but making sure that happens isn't easy. The eager student with their hand up after every question may shut down contributions from others, while the wallflower in the back may have a perspective others haven't considered but doesn't feel comfortable sharing it. Balancing the dynamics between students requires the teacher to work very intentionally to make space so that every student can share their thoughts. And hearing from a variety of students is essential for on-the-fly formative assessment-is it time to move on, or does this point need reteaching?

Cold calling is a commonly used technique to ensure that more voices are heard. It's also useful for identifying disengaged students and keeping everyone focused. It can be an easy-yet powerful and effective-tool to engage every kid when done correctly and equitably, preventing the discussion from being dominated by the ones who always raise their hands.

But teachers tell us cold calling shouldn't be the sole practice used to motivate students to participate. And participation doesn't have to mean speaking to the whole class anyway-it can take many forms, from a simple hand gesture to a group brainstorm to an asynchronous opportunity to chime in after class.

Participation can also mean following up on another student's answer or even asking a question rather than responding to one, which can be nerve-wrecking when students have to admit they don't understand something. But others might be experiencing the same confusion, and both the teacher and the rest of class can benefit from one student speaking up to ask for clarification, so students need to know that expressing confusion is acceptable-even welcome.

Teachers have a myriad of participation techniques at their disposal to ensure that all students, including kids who might not do well in social settings, have a voice in the classroom. For these students, the fear of participation and the hesitation to do so are justified: They might not respond as quickly as their peers simply because they need more time to process information, or because speaking up in a crowded classroom is anxiety-inducing to them.

Creating a safe environment for everyone to participate requires teachers to have a wide range of participation tools that are compatible with the strengths of students of diverse backgrounds and abilities. If you're looking for those tools, you'll find something here that works for you.

Everyone Has An Answer-or a Question

Students need an entry point into class discussions, and teachers can use strategies that invite them to contribute without fixating on getting the correct answer.

Simple check-in questions that can be answered with a thumbs-up or other hand signals can help break the ice, set a positive tone in the class, and allow the teacher to gauge student understanding. To start off a lesson on percentage, for instance, middle school math teacher Ann Young explains to her students how they can participate in a nonverbal, low-stakes way: "If you even have an entry point into the problem, something to contribute to the problem, you're going to put your thumb up.... So about a minute to think and then as soon as you have some kind of something to contribute your thumb is going up."

These quick check-ins serve as a low-stakes participation strategy for English language learners (ELLs) and as a brief assessment of student comprehension and processing needs for teachers, according to Larry Ferlazzo and Katie Sypnieski, veteran teachers and authors of The ESL/ELL Teacher's Survival Guide. "After an explanation or lesson, a teacher could say, 'Please put thumbs up, thumbs down, or sideways to let me know if this is clear, and it's perfectly fine if you don't understand or are unsure-I just need to know,'" they suggest.

To solicit more substantive answers from students and keep track of who's already contributed to a discussion, try using the rubber ducks strategy-handing out a fun, potentially silly object such as a rubber duck to each student who contributes something. This visual cue shows who has yet to speak, suggests high school teacher Lindsay Mitchell.

Or you could use equity sticks-writing students' names on popsicle sticks or index cards and cycling through until everyone's name has been called. This keeps students mentally alert and poised to contribute, writes educational consultant Shane Safir, and routine use of this practice also "promotes a culture of participation and attention."

Peer-to-Peer Options

One of the most effective ways to encourage students to participate is to let them discuss in small groups, and varying the structures of these discussions both empowers students to take ownership of their learning and allows teachers to assess student understanding in real time.

Well-designed discussions not only promote equity in the classroom but also shift "the talk ratio and the cognitive load from you to your students," writes Safir. She recommends alternating between simple discussion arrangements such as Think-Pair-Share and Talking Pennies, where students are each given the same number of pennies to ensure that each speaks the same number of times. "A student who has used up his or her pennies must wait for all the other students' pennies to be in the middle before speaking again," Safir explains.

When implementing Think-Pair-Share with ELLs, consider giving them the option to choose their own partner, which "prevents you from inadvertently pairing them up with someone they don't feel comfortable asking for help or with whom they really don't get along," writes elementary teacher Joanna Schwartz.

To help students sharpen their speaking and listening skills, try sharing with them a map of their discussion to show how the interactions rolled out in real time, and launching a debrief session about what the students have accomplished and what they should strive to improve.

The Power of Asynchronous Participation

Conventional participation techniques don't always take into account the needs of shy kids, introverts, ELLs, and those who might need extra time to process information before formulating a response. Teachers can address this issue by differentiating and personalizing participation so that students of all backgrounds and dispositions feel comfortable expressing their thoughts. In the classroom, waiting for 15 to 20 seconds after asking a question before having anyone answer can help, former teacher John McCarthy explains.

Another way to help is to provide students with ways to contribute that don't involve speaking. Digital innovation has ushered in an abundance of collaborative tools that enable student participation in ways that ease some of the pressure associated with social interaction or public speaking. Try letting students share their thoughts and ask questions in a Google Doc, Google Classroom, or Padlet, suggests former sixth-grade teacher Katy Farber. Farber found that her introverted students who "struggle with out-loud participation can shine as digital participants," and this opens up opportunities for asynchronous participation that doesn't have to happen during class time.

You might also consider allowing students to submit their input anonymously through apps like Nearpod, recommends Stephanie Toro, an assistant professor at the Universidad de los Andes. "They will feel their ideas represented without any anxiety of being recognized," she writes. "They personally will know that they were heard and contributed to the collective learning experience." For ELLs and others, this reduces the pressure of having to respond out loud and gives them time to process and formulate a written response.

The Question of Measurement

Striving to improve student participation will lead a teacher to consider the question of whether and how to grade it. Although teachers often grade participation as a way to motivate every student to contribute in class-a positive outcome-many worry about grading's vulnerability to implicit bias of many kinds, they tell us in discussions on social media.

For one, traditional participation is graded based on how often a student speaks up in class, which benefits native English speakers over English language learners and outspoken, gregarious students over shy, introverted kids. These differences may be compounded by racial and gender bias. And the participation grade is often determined by a teacher's recent observation of students, which can erase an important part of students' journey earlier in the year that was indicative of their growth, educators tell us.

And all of that is leaving aside the fact that if a teacher hasn't developed a really thorough way to collect data on participation, they're just relying on their memory of each of their many students' contributions over an entire marking period.

It's high time teachers looked at participation with a more nuanced lens that recognizes the diverse abilities, backgrounds, and dispositions of all students. The good news is that when you make it a priority to use a wide range of participation tools that meet the needs of diverse learners, you'll have even less reason to grade participation-students' feeling seen and included will translate into a genuine, authentic motivation to contribute and learn.

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How to Open Class Participation to Everyone

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Having a wide range of participation tools-in addition to cold calling-helps teachers encourage students of all backgrounds and dispositions to contribute.

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Who are you hearing from in your class? As a sixth-grade teacher, I used to encourage my students who didn't speak up in read-aloud discussions, morning meetings, or whole class lessons. I would write comments of encouragement and cheer moments of participation. And when it came to pondering how they did on certain standards, such as "participates in class discussions about literature," I had plenty of data to support my scores.

But was I really giving the introverted students a chance to show what they knew and could do if I only considered whole class participation data?

We know students learn in different ways and are working to develop in their zone of proximal development. Teachers regularly differentiate and personalize learning for students' dispositions, abilities, interests, backgrounds, and personality types. But it has taken the education community quite a long time to consider introverts.

The good news is, there are practices, assessments, and procedures that support introverts in an often extroverted world.

Successful Experiences for Our Introverted Students

1. Participating through Google Docs collaboration: A teacher named Sam Nelson shared this with me. He created a Google Doc discussion tracker and would share it with his students a few days before a class literature or civics discussion. He asked students to post in-depth questions about a shared reading to the doc. Students could respond to their peers' questions, and Sam read some of the questions and answers aloud in class, thereby avoiding some of the stress so many introverts struggle with when they fear they may be called on to respond on the spot.

This technique allows a teacher to see a student's level of understanding-through both their questions and answers-without waiting for them to speak in class. Sam says of this approach, "Students can use the digital discussions as a basis for approaching, exploring, processing, or reflecting on content. While we can review the discussion trackers out loud, we can also use small groups or independent review protocols to get students following the digital discussions. And best of all, those introverted students who struggle with out-loud participation can shine as digital participants-when you look at the editing history of the doc, every word they've contributed is tagged with their name."

This is a low-risk way for introverted students to participate and feel important and valued in a discussion. And the student responses can be used as formative assessment.

2. Participating through Google Classroom: In literacy class, I used to have students respond to questions and prompts about their reading in literacy journals, where they worked on developing their reading strategies and author's craft, and reflected on themes in their reading.

Some students wouldn't feel comfortable reading their entries in small group discussions. But when I started posting the prompts on Google Classroom and asking students to respond to each other, my introverts rose to the occasion, posting comments and questions. It's like they had been waiting for this tool.

Journal entries in Google Classroom make a great formative assessment, and I could record students' comments and questions to track participation.

3. Digital brainstorming via Padlet: For an introvert with a great idea, trying to be heard can be an uphill battle. Kids call out, interrupt, and finish your sentences. During brainstorming sessions with the class about projects, solutions, ideas, and plans, teachers can use a digital space such as Padlet to have students post their ideas, and everyone's contributions can be seen by all. This is a great tool for all students.

4. Using digital choices for reflection: Sharing their innermost thoughts about a learning experience or current event can be terrifying for introverts. Yes, we need to encourage them to use their voices, but students need to take small steps and be encouraged along the way.

Giving students choice in how they reflect on their learning can promote more engagement from introverts, and it provides more opportunity for expression. Students can doodle their thoughts in Google Draw, record their voices on VoiceThread or Flipgrid, or caption a photo or artwork, for example.

5. Providing choice in presentations: All students need to showcase and present their work to authentic audiences to feel relevant and important. Introverted students benefit from some choice here, too. Speeches, news broadcasts, interviews, or TED-style talks can be recorded and shared in lieu of a live presentation.

What matters is that students demonstrate their learning and challenge themselves in meaningful ways.

6. Practicing social interactions: All students need to learn life skills like talking to community mentors and experts in the field. This can be particularly stressful for introverts, so they might need to write a script for the communication and to practice it with a trusted adult or peer. This step can create a positive social experience instead of a potentially scary, unpredictable one.

7. Providing down time: One of the mistakes I regularly make as an extrovert is planning too many activities with lots of stimulation, with no downtime or reflective time in between. With our busy school days, this is an easy mistake to make. It's no wonder that my students valued 30-minute blocks for choice reading and 15-20 minutes of read-aloud time. These were the only times during the day when students could take a true breather-just pick a spot to sit and engage with a personally meaningful text. Providing more time like this throughout the day, particularly on hectic days, can be calming for students.

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Creating Paths to Participation for Introverts | Edutopia

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Who are you hearing from in your class? As a sixth-grade teacher, I used to encourage my students who didn't speak up in read-aloud discussions, morning meetings, or whole class lessons. I would write comments of encouragement and cheer moments of participation.

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Moral development at the elementary school level plays a critical role in shaping a child's character. Even though most schools would like to prioritize physical education, moral education is also mandatory. From an early age, psychologists have explored innovative ways to help children internalize moral teaching. In this article, we will be going over some of the best and most effective activities to promote moral development in children at the elementary school level. So, without further adieu, let's get started!

1. Coordinated Activities

Coordinated activities can play an important role in evoking a sense of morality in young children. You will guide your students in a role-playing game or other rule-following game. They have to acknowledge that they should not cheat and play fair-minded. This will also help In the social development of children and discourage immoral behavior.

Learn more: Open Lab

2. Problem-Solving Activities

Problem-solving activities in a classroom or homeschool can play a major role in moral development. Discussing real-life problems will allow you to hear many arguments and opinions. You can tell them complex stories and ask their opinions on that issue. This will help students to think out of the box and defend a situation morally.

Learn more: National Library of Medicine

3. Debate on Different Aspects of a Situation

According to the Handbook of Moral Development, students learn better about moral behaviors when encountering a complex situation. Discuss with your students how they will act in a certain situation and compel them to develop a strong sense of reasoning..

Learn more: Amazon

4. Let Children Help Others

A child will have a better moral compass if allowed to help others in the early years of development. Encourage them to display pro-social behavior regardless of ethnicity, belief, race, and gender.

Learn more: Karger

5. Hold a Mutual Interaction Session

According to Kohlberg, when a child develops trust in their loved ones, they can grow up into better human beings morally and spiritually. Have your students sit with you in the morning to discuss daily tasks and how to behave in certain situations.

Learn more: Sprouts

6. Effective Listening

Effective listening is as important in developing a child's morals. As part of an activity, you can tell a story or brief students about an event, but tell them there will be time for questions afterward. This way, they will learn that listening to others is equally important as being heard.

Learn more: Study.com

7. Communicate Responsibilities

Try to assign every student a responsibility that they have to fulfill daily. Once they have fulfilled a task, reward them using verbal praise and encouragement. This will help them to develop a sense of self-worth. Assign students duties like cleaning the whiteboard or organizing books alphabetically.

Learn more: Center for Parent and Teen Communication

8. Arrange Group Tasks

Students at the elementary level are often reluctant to work in groups. However, you have to teach them the importance of group cooperation through physical activities. Assign tasks in the form of groups to ensure your students are being socially active. This will help them exchange ideas to perform a task as a team.

Learn more: Mom Junction

9. Make Children Respect other's Opinions

Using various problem-solving activities, ask students what they would do if they were in a specific situation. Teach them to respect other people's opinions even if they disagree with them. Teach them what individual differences are and how their beliefs may differ from those of their classmates.

Learn more: Kiddie Academy

10. Play Various Games

While playing games like football or basketball, implement a set of rules. This will help the students to adhere to basic guidelines while playing. Make sure to establish consequences to demonstrate what will occur if rules are broken.

Learn more: Right to Play

11. Readout Stories with a Moral

Appoint a timeslot in the day to read stories to your students that teach them life lessons. However, ensure that the chosen stories present a moral lesson by the end. Fairy tales work great for this!

Learn more: T-Series Kids Hut

12. Red and Green Light Game

Another fun activity that promotes moral development is the red and green light game. The kids will walk toward the finish line when a green light is displayed and will be asked to stop when the red light flashes. Any candidate who disobeys the rules will have to start over.

Learn more: Play Apy

13. Resist Temptations

Here you can arrange a fun activity by blowing up bubbles onto the students. Ask them to pop as many bubbles as they want in the first round. In the second round, they will not be allowed to pop any bubbles and must resist the temptation by waiting patiently until it's their turn.

Learn more: Sage Journals

14. Ready, Set, Go

In this activity, you will instruct students to run as they hear the words "ready, set, and go." Try and trick their mind by saying ready, set, and gorilla, or you even saying ready, set, guava. This activity is known to promote effective listening.

Learn more: Amazon

15. Board Games

Students must classify the cards on a board that displays a sign for right on one side and a symbol for wrong on the other side. Students must categorize whether each image on the cards they are shown represents a right or wrong action. This activity focuses on promoting moral reasoning in children.

Learn more: Amazon

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15 Activities to Promote Moral Development at Elementary School Level - Teaching Expertise

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Moral development at the elementary school level plays a critical role in shaping a child's character. Even though most schools would like to prioritize physical education, moral education is also mandatory. From an early age, psychologists have explored innovative ways to help children internalize moral teaching.

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Back when I was a first-grade teacher, I used learning centers during small-group reading instruction. While I met with a small group, the rest of the class worked at different centers set up around the classroom. I needed a way to transition between learning centers and wanted to come up with something fun. I decided to use the song "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley, so students knew that when they heard it, it was time to clean up and either get ready to move to the next center or come work with me.

The song became something all the kids would get excited about, and they'd sing it and dance around while they cleaned up, helping each other. My students also turned it into a challenge to clean up before the end of the song so they could spend more time singing and dancing around. Using the song was something small, but it fostered a sense of fun while encouraging my students to work together.

Nurturing a collaborative learning environment helps build student agency. When students feel included, they feel a sense of empowerment. Done well, collaborative learning fosters that by ensuring that all voices are heard, all students are engaged, and all students feel they are in control of how their contributions make a difference to the group.

Here are three things educators can consider to help foster a culture of inclusivity and collaboration in their classroom.

1. Examine established routines and processes

What are your classroom routines and processes? Are there ways to make them more consistent? More clear? More fun? Think about routines you can establish in your classroom that will help students collaborate. Get to know what excites or interests your students and incorporate those ideas somehow.

Routines make students feel safe because they let them know what to expect. Established routines free up students' brain space for learning because they take the guesswork out of knowing what to do, and when. Established routines also allow students to work together as a classroom community.

Nurturing a collaborative learning environment helps build student agency.

There are lots of routines and processes teachers can use to nurture collaboration. Here are just a few.

Pair or group students thoughtfully for activities

Make sure to change things up and allow students a chance to work with different peers. Be mindful that those children who never get picked or are perceived as difficult to work with are included by creating the groups and pairs yourself.

One way to help students feel involved in the process is to ask students on Mondays to write on a sticky note who they want to work with that week. Notice who is left off and create groups with that in mind. Also make sure that the children who always work well with others don't always have to work with more difficult students.

Create norms for working in pairs and groups as a class. This way your students will be invested in those norms and can hold each other accountable. Role-play different situations that may arise and how to resolve conflicts.

Make sure the routines you establish work for all students

What works for one or some may not work for all. Be mindful of the needs of multilingual learners. For example, allow for translanguaging to ensure students can access the knowledge they need but not get bogged down when they can't find the words in English to express themselves.

Also think about your students with special needs and what will ensure they are included and can collaborate with their peers. For example, give directions in multiple ways-textually, auditorily, pictorially-to ensure all students understand what is expected. Accessibility frees students up to collaborate fully and shows them they are part of your classroom community. Often, it's just little adjustments that make a world of difference.

Give all students a voice in class discussions

Don't just call on the students who you know will be able to answer. Give all students a chance to answer.

When children are on the cusp of understanding, instead of helping them yourself, allow them to "phone a friend" so they can work together. Coach students on how to give help, not just by providing answers but also by asking questions or giving hints. Similarly, make sure to give all students opportunities to lead small-group and whole-group discussions. Some students will always jump at the chance to do so, while others might want to but lack confidence. Set expectations for these discussions and encourage students to help their peers. This will help cultivate a safe space to take risks and create a community that trusts each other.

2. Create a safe space

Creating a space where your students feel safe is essential to nurturing inclusion and collaboration. If students know they can be vulnerable and take risks without fear of teasing or other negative repercussions, they will be able to focus more on learning. A trusting classroom community will help everyone work better together.

Here are a few ideas for making your classroom a safe space for learning and collaboration.

Share positive messages every day

I recently attended a webinar in which two teachers shared ideas for creating an inclusive classroom space. One idea I really liked was providing sticky notes to students so they can capture positive messages about their peers throughout the day. They should have one positive message per sticky note. You can collect the notes at the end of the day and hand them out. (If you are concerned some students may be left out, set up pairings to ensure all students are included.)

Consider having a theme for each day of the week. For example, on Mondays, the theme can be kindness. Students share how peers showed kindness that day. On Tuesdays, the theme can be collaboration. Ask students to share how classmates collaborated well that day. And so on.

Multilingual learners should be encouraged to write their messages in the language they feel most comfortable with. Don't worry if the recipient doesn't read the language it was written in. Kids are resourceful! Plus, getting a message in another language gives them another chance to work together to understand.

All these little ideas can really add up to something big.

Collecting and sharing these affirming messages creates community and a space where your students can feel seen and understood by their peers. It fosters a safe space to collaborate and contributes to students' sense of agency because they know their contributions to the group matter.

Consider the physical space

The arrangement of desks or tables can make a big difference in fostering collaboration. Desks in rows may make partner work easier, but consider if it will work well for small groups.

Set up a cozy corner or area with rugs, pillows, and cushions that can serve multiple purposes: a quiet reading space and a place where partners and small groups can gather. Be sure to consider students with special needs. Can a student on crutches or in a wheelchair navigate the space with ease? Making sure the room is set up so all students feel comfortable contributes to feeling safe and may make it easier for them to collaborate.

3. Choose and use materials that foster collaboration

The materials you use in your classroom can help create a classroom community and help students learn to collaborate. In addition, how you ask students to engage with each other about the materials and how you provide access to them can foster collaboration and help students feel included.

Here are a few things to try.

Select materials that help students see themselves in what they read

The reading material in your classroom should show students windows, mirrors, and sliding glass doors so they can see their own lived experiences in what they read but also learn about experiences that are different from their own.

Reading material should honor students' funds of knowledge and cultural backgrounds. Foster an environment for students to share materials from their home cultures and communities. It makes students feel included when they see themselves in what they read. If they feel included, they will likely find it easier to collaborate with peers.

Create opportunities for students to discuss and hear multiple perspectives on a text, too. When students have a window into the lived experiences of others and can safely discuss their perspectives with each other, it helps them understand one another. These conversations require setting up specific expectations and modeling how to have respectful conversations. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) has some really helpful tips for having respectful conversations in the classroom.

Ensure all materials are accessible to all students

Make sure the materials students need regular access to are stored within their reach. One way to do this is for table groups to share a common set of supplies. Sharing materials also provides a great opportunity to take turns, which is essential to collaboration. Make sure the students with special needs have access to assistive technology devices and anything else they need to participate in the group. Again, think about whether the physical space is a barrier to collaboration.

Small changes are big
Many thanks to my colleagues Natalie Contreras, content specialist, and Teresa Krastel, Spanish solution lead, for their contributions to this blog post.
There are so many ways to foster and nurture an inclusive, collaborative learning space in your classroom-one that gives all your students agency. I have shared just a handful here, but all these little ideas can really add up to something big.

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3 ways to help nurture inclusive, collaborative learning spaces in elementary grades

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Back when I was a first-grade teacher, I used learning centers during small-group reading instruction. While I met with a small group, the rest of the class worked at different centers set up around the classroom. I needed a way to transition between learning centers and wanted to come up with something fun.

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As a student, I was never a fan of group work. I still remember the time my teacher paired me with "Tyler" for a research project. I'm sure my teacher's intentions were good. But I knew from the start that it wouldn't be pleasant.

Tyler wasn't a bad kid, but he wasn't what you'd call a high performer. Our teacher assigned our partners, and we all knew the intention behind the groupings. High achievers were paired with those who could "use some help."

This wasn't my first group project, and I knew my role. Do all the research. Write the paper. Come up with something for Tyler to say during the presentation. Hassle him to learn his lines. Get the same grade.

A Novice Teacher's Perspective

When I began teaching, I was no more a fan of group work than I was as a student. It was messy. It took up too much class time - not to mention grading and planning time. I didn't understand how students would learn the content if I didn't explain it to them.

Group work was something I was to do. I had read the research on the importance of peer learning. Administrators celebrated teachers who used group work. And they encouraged the rest of us to give it a try.

But no one had shown me how to do it well. When I saw other classes doing group work, I noticed all the common problems.

One student did all the work, while others fooled around. Projects that looked good hanging on the wall, but didn't demonstrate meaningful learning. (Jennifer Gonzalez refers to these as "Grecian Urns").

I felt that group work was something you did during an observation. When you wanted your students to actually learn something, you explained it to them or they read about it in a book.

Benefits of Group Work

It took years before group work became a regular part of my classroom routine. But once it did, there was no looking back. Not only were my students getting more out of each lesson, but it was a lot easier on me as a teacher

In a lecture-based classroom, the teacher is at the center of all classroom activity. She delivers the content through lecture. She asks questions, decides who answers, and determines whether the answer is correct. The teacher tells students when they can use the bathroom and what page to turn to in their workbooks. She even provides pencils and paper to students who don't have any.

It is important for both students and teachers to know who's in charge. But teacher-centered classrooms can be terribly inefficient. With twenty to thirty students in a room, the teacher becomes a bottleneck. Students get frustrated when they don't get enough attention or have enough freedom. They begin to act out. Teachers get overwhelmed because they can't give students the attention they need. They get upset because students "aren't listening." They assert their authority more firmly. It quickly becomes a vicious cycle.

Group work isn't about making pretty posters to hang on the wall. And it's not about matching struggling students with high-performers to boost their grades. It's about giving teachers permission to solve every problem or provide every answer. It's about students learning to learn from each other and to use their resources.

Promoting Effective Group Work

For effective collaboration to occur, it's important to understand why group work is valuable. But understanding the 'why' is not enough. Establishing group work as a regular classroom routine takes time. Teachers and students both need to learn norms and develop the social-emotional skills that make group work effective.

I've worked with some educators who believed that effective group work was not possible. Some simply don't see how students will learn if they don't explain the content. Others think it's a passing fad. Still others believe that "it won't work with these kids."

Sadly, the latter is often used to justify regimented and drill-based instruction for students of color. Despite the fact that "collaboration is linked to higher grades for black students." Furthermore, similar benefits were not found for white students. (According to a 2018 report by the American Institute for Research).

If you are coaching or supervising educators who have these misconceptions, it's important to be patient. Many of these teachers have tried group work before, without success. They will need extra assurance and support to be successful this time around.

Here are some tips to make group work engaging and impactful in any classroom.

Start with an Engaging Activity

The first step to effective group work is an engaging activity. Students need to have a reason to work with their group. The right activity should be inquiry-based - where students have a challenging problem to solve. It should be a bit too difficult for any one student to do on their own. But it shouldn't be so hard that they can't get started on their own.

Some great activities for this purpose are The Sieve of Eratosthenes (math) and Team Story Analysis (language arts).

Teach Group Process

Inquiry-based learning allows students to learn content through discovery. But we still teach the process explicitly. Many students have become used to a sit-and-learn approach. If we want them to engage in active learning, we need to actively reset their expectations.

As you introduce group work to your classes, explain what is expected. Start class with a discussion of what good group work looks like: students participate equally, listen to one another, etc. Keeping groups small (2-4 students), helps ensure that everyone has a role.

You may choose to assign roles. For my short story projects, each group had a captain, a scribe, an artist, and a presenter. The team's job was to read a short story and record important information in a graphic organizer. The scribe completed the organizer. The artist created a poster or slideshow. The presenter was in charge of sharing the team's work with the class. The captain coordinated roles. If the group needed to ask me a question, it had to come from the captain.

Make it Count

There's an old saying in business, "What gets measured, gets managed." I still remember how focused and well-behaved my students were on test days. At no other time could I hand them a few pieces of paper and expect 40 minutes of peace and quiet.

Now, I could have just enjoyed the respite those days provided, but that's not my nature. I wanted to harness this focused concentration and reproduce it throughout the year. After all, part of my job as an educator is to prepare students for their future careers. I couldn't think of any job where your value is measured by what you do once or twice a month. In the real world, what matters is who you are and what you do on a daily basis.

If we want students to make an effort during group work, we need to let them know it's important. And the way we let them know is by attaching a grade to it. I use test grades as the standard unit of measure, as students understand that quite easily.

"This activity counts as one fourth of a test grade," or "this project is equal to a test grade."

I use a group work rubric so students will know how their grade will be calculated. This rubric focuses on process, product, and presentation. Students earn 'process' points by communicating well and involving all team members. Their 'product' score is based on the artifacts they produce. 'Presentation' is based on how well they share their work with the rest of the class.

Advocates of standards-based grading rankle at the idea of grading classwork. I agree that it may be more to grade students purely on mastery of standards. But such grading systems can have negative consequences for student confidence and motivation.

Set a Timer

I can't overstate the importance of using a timer in the classroom. Recording times that students are on-task vs off-task can improve student behavior, even in a lecture-based class. For group work, it's an absolute necessity.

A common challenge with group work is that students won't self-start. As teachers, we feel the clock ticking. We know how much we need to cover. Why don't our students have the same sense of urgency?

We need to transfer that sense of urgency to them using clear, measurable units of time. Before they begin, let them know how much time they have to complete the activity. When the time is up, they will be expected to present to the class and hand in their completed work. Prominently display the countdown timer for all to see.

For most students, the clock and the grade will provide enough incentive to stay on task. Others will be motivated by the desire to appear competent to their peers when they present.

It's important to recognize that clocks and grades are extrinsic motivators. When students don't believe they are able to meet external standards, the strategies can backfire. We should constantly assess students' "level of concern." If their concern level is too low, increase the challenge. If their level of concern is too high, dial it back.

Using a timer may not have much of an impact the first time you use it. Some students will not realize their time is up until it's too late. Time management is a component of social-emotional learning (SEL). If students aren't ready to present when called upon, be supportive. They are already developing their sense of time. And learning that they will need to be more focused the next time around.

At First, You Probably Won't Succeed

The key to success with group work is practice and experience. The strategies above will point you in the right direction, but they won't make all your challenges disappear.

Create room in your pacing guides and unit plans to allow for weekly group activities. If you make group practice a weekly habit, the level of engagement and the quality of work will steadily increase.

If you're not sure how to plan an engaging hands-on lesson, use a planning template. This workshop lesson plan template provides a three-part structure that is perfect for group work.

Creativity, Collaboration, and Conceptual Learning

For more ideas on promoting active learning in your classroom, subscribe to our weekly Educator's Newsletter.

You can also join innovative educators from around the world in our Facebook community. We're dedicated to bringing creativity, collaboration, and conceptual learning to every student, in every classroom.
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Group Work Strategies That Work - Room to Discover

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As a student, I was never a fan of group work. I still remember the time my teacher paired me with "Tyler" for a research project. I'm sure my teacher's intentions were good. But I knew from the start that it wouldn't be pleasant.

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Sociocultural Theory of Learning in the Classroom

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These 29+ crib notes are perfect for your essay on the sociocultural theory of education. It gives info on key theorists and scholarly sources to cite.

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BRUNSWICK, Ohio - On Monday, Towslee Elementary School in Brunswick hosted its "Shell-A-Brate" the Arts Night, giving families an opportunity to watch student performances and view student artwork.

Included in this year's event was a beautiful mural created under the direction of art teacher Erin Kraly, which doubled as an important lesson for students.

As a part of the project, Mrs. Kraly traced and cut out tiles for every student at Towslee to color. Without the students knowing what the finished product would look like, she then assembled the tiles together, allowing the students to see how their tile was critical to completing the project.

In addition to being a beautiful mural, the project served as a poignant reminder of how individual responsibility contributes to team success!

More local coverage from WKYC:

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Towslee Elementary School students create mural teaching importance of individual responsibility

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BRUNSWICK, Ohio - On Monday, Towslee Elementary School in Brunswick hosted its "Shell-A-Brate" the Arts Night, giving families an opportunity to watch student performances and view student artwork. Included in this year's event was a beautiful mural created under the direction of art teacher Erin Kraly, which doubled as an important lesson for students.

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Sesame Street: Respect | Word on the Street

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Education has shifted; although many schools are back to teaching in person, educators know that components of hybrid and virtual learning are here to stay. We know that in order to keep learning engaging, meaningful, and student-centered, we have to be flexible. But with flexible learning comes the challenge of keeping students accountable for their learning.

By utilizing effective online resources, co-creating norms, developing clear and consistent structures and deadlines, and keeping student needs in mind, educators can build a learning environment that reaches all learners and paves the way for student ownership. Here are some helpful strategies for accountability as well as coach tips to help you achieve the virtual, hybrid, or in-person learning environment you are envisioning.

Create clear norms and expectations with your students.

By creating clear norms and expectations with your students instead of just for them, you can hold students accountable for their behavior inside and outside of a lesson and use student voice to create community and increase engagement. This also ensures you are all on the same page and have agreed to these rules/norms.

Coach tip

Don't wait to do this! Do this in your lesson or before introducing a new online resource. Revisit these norms and expectations often with your students depending on their needs. Allow them to self-assess and give them a voice to adjust these norms as a class community if they feel necessary throughout the school year.

Prioritize relationships by using consistent structures for checking in/monitoring progress.

By creating time to check in as a class, set goals, and conference around those goals, you can strengthen and maintain those relationships and keep students on track. A class meeting is also a great time to allow students to brainstorm and share around what routines might need readjusting to better serve your entire class community.

Coach tip

I always started my lessons by greeting each student so they knew I saw them and valued them. This automatically holds them accountable for being in class. Then, I moved into our class meeting time. By creating a routine around greeting students and meeting with students as a class and then individually, students know what to expect and that their presence, voice, and work matters. Additionally, by conferencing individually with students, I was able to get to know them on a deeper level and by strengthening that relationship, they stayed more accountable.

Be clear with goals and deadlines.

Another barrier to keeping students accountable is helping them stay on top of assignments and deadlines. It's important to use a calendar system so students know what they need to accomplish and where they are headed, especially in self-paced work. Show this calendar to the entire class and provide access and a copy for students. Depending on your grade level, you can give more support in this process if necessary.

Coach tip

Don't forget that many students have several teachers and subjects to balance. We all need deadlines to keep us on track. Planning towards deadlines is an important life skill; it also helps you as the teacher when you are planning and thinking about what your students need.

Keep students engaged throughout the learning process.

We all know that sometimes students "tune out" whether they're in person or across a screen. Provide stopping points or checkpoints for students to interact with each other, complete a quick exit ticket, or give peer feedback on assignments. If you are holding class in an online or hybrid environment, giving students online "jobs" can also make them feel more involved within the lesson.

By creating exit tickets, you can keep track of student progress and keep students accountable for the learning in each portion of the lesson. Many online platforms such as Google Forms can help you create a simple and quick exit ticket if you are working online.

A chalk talk or silent discussion is a great way to involve all students in the thinking at any part of a lesson or unit. In-person students can use sticky notes or colored markers. Online students can use platforms like Padlet or Google Jamboard.

Utilize peer feedback tools: Giving and receiving peer feedback helps students stay accountable for not just improving their own work, but also the work of others.

Coach tip

For online classrooms, reflect on the structures you used within the walls of a physical classroom and think about how you could bring those to life online. For example, many jobs in the in-person classroom can be transitioned into online learning, such as the "time keeper," and there is room for many roles that are unique to online learning, like the "chat monitor." Try classroom jobs to give students ownership and make them feel valued throughout the learning process. In my classroom, our favorite feedback tool in-person was "glow and grow" so while online we continued to give this feedback within different sharing options like Google Docs.

Create personalized pathways.

Creating personalized pathways can have the biggest impact on student accountability because it allows your students to take ownership of their learning, understand where they are, track progress, and work towards goals.

Use self-assessment tools to help students determine growth areas: Marzano's self-assessment rubric is a great way for students to gauge how much support they need and help them to determine the appropriate next steps or activity to choose.

Use goal setting/reflection templates to help students determine their strengths and areas in need of growth and encourage ownership and accountability for working towards those goals.

Try implementing an individual progress and mastery tracking system. This is the ultimate accountability strategy; competency-based learning gives students ownership over their learning and data. There are various approaches to this strategy and it can be personalized to you and your students.

Coach tip

Creating a competency-based learning system can feel overwhelming at first. Start small by implementing goal setting and self-assessment tools to help students be more reflective about where they are within a standard/concept. You can learn more about competency-based learning here.

Provide options for extra support.

In class, it may seem like your students "got it," but when they go to complete the assignment asynchronously or independently without you there, they may need help. Providing opportunities for extra support while you're not there will help your students stay accountable with trying out their work even when it feels difficult.

Coach tip

For online learning, one way to provide extra support is by using video for flipped learning environments. These videos can help students with specific skills and allow for quick checks for understanding. You can also use programs like Zoom, Loom, and Screencastify to record short videos of yourself to help your students better understand a concept, find where to access materials, or outline the goals of an assignment. This is also extremely helpful for families who are trying to support their children at home.

Motivate students by celebrating growth and success.

In order to stay accountable, students need to feel that their work is important and means something. A simple digital space to share and celebrate growth and success can make a huge difference.

A positive news board is a great place for students to recognize the growth that has emerged from their hard work. This board can be up in an in-person classroom or created in a digital space.

Coach tip

You can have students add to the board themselves by using Padlet or Google Jamboard in a virtual or hybrid environment. In-person students can easily add to a physical board with sticky notes or notecards. Encouraging students to celebrate themselves as well as their peers fosters key social-emotional skills such as relationship skills. You can take a brief period of time daily or each week (ex: five to ten minutes) to verbally share out bright spots or "glows" from the week.

By holding our students accountable, we hold ourselves as educators accountable. We ensure that our expectations and directions are clear, that we are strengthening our relationships with all students, that we know where we're headed, and that we can create systems to engage and support all students in their own learning journey-whether that's in a virtual, hybrid, or in-person classroom. Our students are very capable, but we have to help them get there. At the heart of this work is continuous improvement: trying, measuring, and learning (TML).

If you would like further support implementing these strategies, a BetterLesson instructional coach can help you get started. If you are interested in learning more about hybrid and virtual learning, explore this focus area here.

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15+ Strategies to Help With Student Accountability - BetterLesson

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Education has shifted; although many schools are back to teaching in person, educators know that components of hybrid and virtual learning are here to stay. We know that in order to keep learning engaging, meaningful, and student-centered, we have to be flexible. But with flexible learning comes the challenge of keeping students accountable for their learning.

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Group projects have a bad reputation among students-but educators can change that.

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Group Work and Group Discussions: Management in the Active Classroom

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Structures, protocols, modeling, and guidance build students' collaboration and discussion skills.

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Updated 12/15/22; original post 10/9/17

If structured well, group projects can promote important intellectual and social skills. Group projects also prepare students for real-world work projects in which teamwork and collaboration are critical skills. How can teachers eliminate two common group member stereo types - the lone wolf and the free loader?

Lone wolf - highly individualistic & resist collaboration

Free loaders - lack initiative and avoid work

Often in unstructured groups, a mainstreamed student with a disability - such as a student with a visual impairment - is not always fully included in group projects. How can teachers facilitate equality and active participation from every group member, including groups with diversity?

Making Groups with Diversities Work

Teachers often do not consider that students may not know how to break down the project into manageable tasks and how to delegate these smaller tasks. Students who do not have these skills may shut down on the project and appear to be 'free loading'. Students who lack good social skills may have a lot to contribute to the group but are overwhelmed with how to appropriately interact within the group. These students may feel flustered, alone and alienated.

Process: Initially, the process of working in a group is initially more important than the actual group product. All students need to learn how to identify and delegate team roles, set up short and long term goals, how to plan backward and most importantly how to communicate. Research shows that more than 50 percent of 'freeloading' in a student group is due to poor communication.

Time: It takes time for a group to learn to work together, to facilitate equality, interaction and understanding - especially groups with diversity.

Trust: Trust in the group process. Expect failures and learn from them. Focus on strengthens and weakness of the group - not what individuals are doing right or wrong.

Group projects in college tend to be full semester projects. However, simple group projects - and strategies for group work - are introduced early. Elementary school projects may be a quick, 30-minute group activity. Teamwork, social skills and group skills should be age-appropriate and should be developed and expanded as the complexity of the projects grow.

Teaching Group Skills

The following skills focus on group skills for students who are working on bigger projects (middle school and beyond); these skills can be broken down for younger students as well.

Reasons for Group: Discuss the reasons behind the group project and the type of learning that will be accomplished through group collaboration. Explain that in some cases, articulating questions, finding connections, probing issues, exploring parameters, formulating ideas and solutions provides deeper understanding and long-term retention. This valuable style of learning comes through collaboration with others.

Size of Group: 4 -5 members will balance diversity, productivity, active participation and cohesion. The less skillful the group members, the smaller the groups should be. Instead of grouping by location (friends tend to sit together), organize random group members by group by birthdays, favorite candy, interest/hobbies. In some cases, the teacher may decide to place specific members together.

Use an icebreaker to help group cohesion and bonding.

Roles & Responsibilities: Brainstorm possible roles and responsibilities - clearly assign and define roles. Roles must be address early to prevent potential conflicts that arise due to misunderstandings!
For younger students, the teacher may dictate what types of roles are needed. However, be cautious about assigning roles such as "note taker" on simple projects, as often a visually impaired student is given that role for every project and limits the expectation of hands-on or actively participating. Better Roles and Responsibilities might be for the group to determine who will research what topic or to complete a specific group goal.

Develop Ground Rules:

Professional conduct

Respect team members' differences and create an inclusive environment

Address accountability

Communication: Throughout each step, all team members should communicate! Share successes and work together through unsuccessful attempts. Each 'attempt' is an opportunity to learn. As a team, brainstorm ideas about why a goal was not successful and either what can be done differently or if the goal should be modified or changed.

Task management: Start with the end goal.

Clearly define the end goal and break down tasks to reach that goal.

Create a timeline for each task to be completed.

Assign tasks (Remember, individual students or smaller teams can work simultaneously on different goals!)

Group members need to be taught how to divide tasks fairly and to encourage everyone to fully participate. Allocate essential resources across the group so that group members are required to interact and share information ('jigsaw' method)

Schedule regular class or teacher updates/presentations/deadlines (for larger group projects); require each team member to talk/share. These updates should include what was successful and what was not.

Engineering Design Process - Group Activities

Engineering activities are a wonderful way to build group skills - including good social and communication skills. The Engineering Design Process for younger students has five steps:

Ask: What is the problem? How have others approached it? What are your constraints?

Imagine: What are some solutions? Brainstorm ideas. Choose the best one.

Plan: Draw a diagram. Make lists of materials you will need.

Create: Follow your plan and create something. Test it out!

Improve: What works? What doesn't? What could work better? Modify your design to make it better. Test it out!

Use the Engineering Design Process questions to help develop active participation between group members. Model brainstorming (questions and answers) as a class project before working in small groups. The engineering process expects trial and error, improving, and learning from 'mistakes'. When a design is created, the next step is to improve the design - which means discussing, brainstorming, planning, re-creating and testing again!

Ideas for Group Activities

Looking for a simple group (engineering) project for younger kids? Try Help Harry - an Engineering group project.
Accessible written description of the Help Harry Project here.
Pinterest is a wonderful source for ideas on how to teach group skills and specific group activities.
Group Projects on Pinterest It's Good Till It's Not is an article about group project dynamics with team members who have disabilities.
Editor's Notes

The featured imagine in this post is a colorful classroom poster with GROUP acronym:

G - Get along - compromise

R - Respect your teammates & Respect the rest of the class

O - Offer your ideas and thoughtful feedback

U - Use a plan & quiet voices

P - Participate actively and equally

S - Stay focused & on task

Attached File(s)

https://www.perkins.org/sites/elearning.perkinsdev1.org/files/Help%20Harry%20Project.docx
By Diane Brauner

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Making Group Projects Work with Diverse Students! - Perkins School for the Blind

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Can students with diverse abilities successfully work together?

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Teaching about inclusion and diversity exposes students to various cultural and social groups, preparing them to become better citizens in their communities.

These inclusion and diversity-based lessons include icebreaker activities, discussion questions, classroom games, suggested reading, presentations, hands-on activities, digital resources, and more! They provide opportunities for students to practice empathy, tolerance, and acceptance and help foster a classroom environment of kindness.

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10 Inclusion-Based Activities for Students - Teaching Expertise

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Teaching about inclusion and diversity exposes students to various cultural and social groups, preparing them to become better citizens in their communities. These inclusion and diversity-based lessons include icebreaker activities, discussion questions, classroom games, suggested reading, presentations, hands-on activities, digital resources, and more! They provide opportunities for students to practice empathy, tolerance, and acceptance and ...

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Essential Strategies for Inclusive Teaching - ASCD

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Emerging data on student academic outcomes during the pandemic indicate that Black students (and other underserved groups) suffered academic losses in areas such as reading and math (Dorn et al., 2020). Many teachers struggled to get Black students to consistently engage during the pandemic. But to

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El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice was founded in New York City in 1993 by a neighborhood social justice organization working with the school system to turn around failure for students in the Southside neighborhood of Brooklyn-a community that was then one of the most violent in the city. By 2003, El Puente was recognized as one of the New York City Department of Education's "Schools of Excellence," and it continues to receive an A grade on the department's official report card for its strong outcomes for students. The school's 4-year, college-preparatory curriculum "promotes academic and intellectual mastery as well as holistic leadership development through a culturally relevant, standards-based curriculum that integrates community development projects."

Developing community within and beyond the school is central to the school's mission and is strengthened through several structures. All students belong to an advisory, which meets twice a week and focuses on life and relationships. Advisories engage in activities and games that build community as well as the serious business of analyzing relationships and their impact on students' lives. For example, facilitators walk students through the creation of a relationship map. In the process of creating and working through their map, students begin to see which relationships add value to their lives and which might not. As one of the facilitators explained, students need to have silence, space, and no distractions because, "We're really digging deep." The activity is followed by a circle discussion, in which students share what they feel comfortable sharing. While advisory groups tend to be mixed gender, the school also has an all-girls advisory that focuses on topics that affect young women in particular, such as self-esteem, body image, drug abuse, emotional needs, and the use of language (e.g., how they talk to each other, the experience of code switching).

In addition to advisories, town hall meetings provide a gathering space for faculty and students, either all together or by advisory or grade level, to voice their concerns about existing practices and issues and make recommendations for constructive change. As such, these meetings demonstrate the relationship between empowerment and community change and exemplify social responsibility and community engagement by staff and students alike. Advisors help students prepare for these meetings in advance during their advisories, encouraging students to discuss issues they have with teachers, classes, or peers and to think about how to present such issues respectfully and constructively.

Advisors inform students about the presentation procedures, such as one mic (i.e., one speaker at a time). Students then write their talking points in advance, a practice that enables them to examine and reflect on their thoughts and feelings, as well as find ways to publicly express them that will be productive for themselves and the community. Assistant Principal Waleska Velez recounted one case in which students were able to express their objection to peers' pejorative language about gay individuals. In order to ensure that all students have voice at a town hall meeting, students might be asked to record their issues on chart paper or use a strategy such as pass-the-ball to include everyone in the dialogue. Because town halls require students to navigate the relationship between their self-interest and their community's needs, they provide opportunities for students to learn about the dialectic between the individual and common good and to exercise their skills as participants in this dialogue.

Overview of Environments Filled With Safety and Belonging

The vignette above illustrates how El Puente Academy prioritizes time and space in the master schedule for students and staff to come together regularly in advisory classes, town hall meetings, and other settings to foster students' sense of belonging, ownership, and agency in the school. This type of environment is essential for student learning and development; it both buffers students from stress and adversity and provides safety and consistency, so that students can take risks, explore new experiences, and develop their identities. The culture staff and students build together has far-reaching effects because they "own it" as a community.

The environment of a school sets the tone through features of the physical environment, as well as how time and space are used and how relationships and experiences are created.

The environment of a school sets the tone through features of the physical environment, as well as how time and space are used and how relationships and experiences are created. This context sends messages about the value placed on the students and staff who work together in the school. What is important or unimportant, what is rewarded or sanctioned, who is powerful or powerless, and who is viewed as trustworthy or untrustworthy are all communicated by the environment. Broken or functional classroom furniture, current or outdated technology, and sufficient or limited instructional supplies communicate that those attending the school and those working in the school are important or unimportant, worth investing in or not. Access to and use of texts and instructional materials that acknowledge and reflect students' backgrounds, culture, and interests send a message about the degree of student acceptance and belonging, the legitimacy of their cultures, and the importance of student voice in the school community. And an emphasis on restoring relationships rather than punishing missteps sends a message about whether students are viewed as worthy of trust and belong to the school community.

An environment can be rich in protective factors or contain significant risks to both children and staff. A positive learning environment (also referred to as a positive school climate) supports students' growth across all domains of development-physical, psychological, cognitive, social, and emotional-while it reduces stress and anxiety that create biological impediments to learning. Such an environment takes a "whole child" approach to education, seeking to address the distinctive strengths, needs, and interests of students as they engage in learning. Educational settings that provide developmentally rich relationships and experiences, like El Puente Academy, can buffer the effects of stress or trauma, promote resilience, and foster healthy development and engagement in learning.

What the Science Says

The brain is a prediction machine that loves order: It is calm when things are orderly and gets anxious when things are chaotic or threatening. The brain wants to know what is going to happen next. We are constantly making predictions, unconsciously and at every moment of the day; positive, consistent routines allow our brains to predict what is coming next, which reduces the cognitive load needed to process new information. This new information fuels the learning process and the brain's ability to be productive. When the brain knows what is coming next, it can plan for what it is going to do in response. However, if the environment is chaotic and unpredictable, the brain is less able to focus, concentrate, and remember. Environments designed with shared values, norms, and routines create calm, consistent, safe settings, which in turn, promote productivity, curiosity, and exploration.

Our environments influence the expression of our genes. Each of us has about 20,000 genes in our genome, yet in our lifetime, fewer than 10% of our genes will get expressed. Gene expression happens through a biological process called epigenetic adaptation, in which the environments, experiences, and relationships in our lives determine which genes are expressed. Thus, the life cycle of a child is shaped by the contexts he or she experiences and is not predetermined in a genetic program.

Children's ability to learn and take risks is enhanced when they feel emotionally and psychologically safe; it is undermined when they feel threatened. The internal resources that children bring to learning-including prior knowledge and experience, integrated neural (social, emotional, and cognitive) processes, motivation, and metacognitive skills-are affected by the environments they experience. When children encounter trust, caring, and positive relationships with adults and peers, they can draw on these resources for learning. On the other hand, when children experience significant adversity or trauma, both their brains and their bodies are affected through the biological mechanisms of stress. This stress can become toxic when threats are constant. The surge of cortisol and adrenaline that is part of the stress response triggers hypervigilance and anxiety, reducing working memory and focus. Unless other supportive relationships and contexts are available, this process can affect the developing neural architecture that is critical for learning.

What Schools Can Do

"I've rarely met a student who couldn't rise to the occasion, and if they weren't rising to the occasion, it was probably because they needed extra support."

A positive school context and community in which adults and students are dedicated to a shared vision of holistic student success is a core feature of a successful educational experience. Cultivating a supportive school environment that instills safety and belonging involves:

building a safe and caring learning community, with consistent routines that allow students to be well known and well supported;

developing restorative practices that are trauma-informed and healing-oriented; and

fostering culturally responsive and inclusive learning experiences through which all students feel valued.

Whether consciously or not, a district's or school's policies and practices reflect current and older assumptions that have created customs and procedures over time, which sometimes have contradictory influences on the environment over time as well. For a school to achieve an environment in which belonging and safety are principal features, a good first step is to engage members of the school community to assess the assumptions reflected in current policies and practices to identify what changes are needed. (See, for example, this Climate Connections Toolkit and implementation rubric.) District and school leaders may ask: What are the behaviors we want to see members of our community enact? How do we support people to learn to behave in those desired ways? What is the evidence that current policies and practices produce the desired behaviors? This information can provide grist for the design of structures and practices that support safety and belonging in the school environment:

Structures that foster safety and belonging include:

shared values and norms framed as "do's" that guide relationships (e.g., respect, responsibility, kindness) rather than "don'ts" that direct punishments (e.g., don't talk, touch, or move); these are co-developed with students and translated into expectations for each community member's actions and interactions;

consistent routines that support order and positive interactions (e.g., daily greetings, regular classroom meetings, shared classroom practices), building a foundation for a strong sense of community and belonging within the school;

restorative routines and settings that support reflection and build life skills (e.g., community circles, places where students can defuse and reflect, and processes for explicit conflict resolution); and

inclusive settings, including heterogeneous classrooms and socially supportive extracurriculars that are culturally affirming and communicate common expectations and opportunities.

Practices that build safe and caring learning communities include:

educators' regular and skillful use of co-developed norms, routines that enable responsibility and agency, de-escalation practices when situations become tense, and management of conflict through dialogue and reparation of harm;

attention to signs of trauma, using a range of tools and resources to uncover and understand what children are experiencing, as well as healing-oriented practices, including mindfulness, counseling, and access to additional resources; and

respect for students, coupled with instruction that builds upon students' cultures, identities, and experiences alongside efforts to reduce implicit and explicit bias in the classroom and school as a whole; these practices include affirmations that establish the value of each student, cultivate diversity as a resource, and encourage asset-based celebrations of accomplishments.

In order to design supportive environments filled with safety and belonging, some practices that many schools have inherited may need to evolve toward others that are more effective toward that end goal (see Table 3.1).

Building a Safe and Caring Learning Community

Students at Social Justice Humanitas Academy often participate in community-building activities to build a positive school culture. Photo provided by Social Justice Humanitas Academy.

The foundations of a safe and caring learning community are:

shared values and norms that are co-developed as part of a proactive, positive approach to classroom management; and

consistent routines that include consistent approaches to developing positive relationships across the school and dedicated time for regular community meetings within and beyond classrooms.

These structures are a critical foundation, but what will make them fully successful and bring them fully to life depends on the way in which they are used, modeled, and implemented in practice, as described in greater detail below.

Shared values and norms

Shared values and norms co-developed by students with teachers are part of a proactive, positive classroom management approach that builds community.

Co-developing shared values and norms involves a proactive approach to classroom management as something that is done with students and not to them. School leaders and educators can design environments that are caring and purposeful by including students as active participants in classroom management and conflict resolution, and by organizing classroom structures around communal responsibility, rather than compliance and punishment. (See, for example, Turnaround for Children's Continuum of Practice on Expectations, Norms and Routines.)

For example, students can be engaged to help create their classrooms' norms or community agreements -often displayed in a classroom constitution that is posted so that it can be a reminder and a reference point. Students can also take ownership of dozens of activities in the classroom in roles such as materials manager or as a contributor to bulletin boards, classroom activities, or special events. This ensures that all students have voice and membership in the classroom design, norms, and management and allows them to be responsible and contributing members of the community.

When students help create their classrooms' rules and culture, they are more engaged and invested in learning. Source: Edutopia

Teachers and students together create common agreements for how to behave in various situations, and they discuss and practice how to handle different situations so that students can interact respectfully, take turns, voice their needs and thoughts appropriately, and solve problems that occur. As community members, teachers and peers play an active role in supporting their classmates in learning how to regulate their behavior, and teachers help scaffold children's development toward self-regulation by providing them with a repertoire of words and strategies to use to manage different situations.

A well-researched example of a developmentally grounded, schoolwide approach to classroom management that involves the co-development of shared norms and values with students is the Consistency Management and Cooperative Discipline approach. (See "The Consistency Management and Cooperative Discipline Approach.")

For these norms to be fully expressed in the classroom and the school, they should be integrated as part of instruction for students and professional learning for adults, just as any skill is taught. Members of the school community should be able to explain why the norm is important and what it looks like in practice and to offer intentional opportunities to practice and give feedback as to how living out the norm in practice is going. (Learn more about how Valor College Academies does this in " Positive Developmental Relationships.")

In the process, adults and students learn to recognize and manage their emotions, access help when they need it, and learn how to solve problems and resolve conflicts together, all of which serves to make schools safer and more nurturing for everyone.

By explicitly teaching the interrelated set of cognitive, social, and emotional competencies that help people cope with their emotions while they learn, develop, and maintain mutually supportive relationships, educators can ensure that students and staff alike have the tools to produce a developmentally healthy environment for the entire community. In the process, adults and students learn to recognize and manage their emotions, access help when they need it, and learn how to solve problems and resolve conflicts together, all of which serves to make schools safer and more nurturing for everyone. (See " Development of Skills, Habits, and Mindsets " for more on supporting the development of these skills.)

Consistent routines

Consistent routines create order, including dedicating time to regular community meetings.

Implementing consistent routines for relationships and work habits across classrooms and settings helps students know what is expected of them, reducing stress and empowering them to have greater ownership and responsibility. Putting these predictable patterns in place also allows teachers and staff to focus more energy on positive interactions and meaningful instruction. By allowing predictability, such routines reduce cognitive load so that they increase both adults' and children's mental capacity for problem-solving and learning. Having common routines and procedures is equally important for times when students are outside of classrooms-in the hallway, on the playground, in the cafeteria-and when they are in transitions, such as at the beginning of the day, at mealtimes, and at the end of the day.

Community meetings can help build a caring and collaborative environment in which students have a sense of belonging, voice, and agency over their own learning and behavior.

A particularly effective strategy that supports community building is to establish consistent routines by dedicating time in the day for regular community meetings. In elementary schools these may take the form of classroom meetings that start the day or reunite students after lunch or recess. In secondary schools, these meetings may take place as community circles in advisory classes or, periodically, in content classes. Community meetings can help build a caring and collaborative environment in which students have a sense of belonging, voice, and agency over their own learning and behavior. When implemented with intentionality, such meetings offer a respectful setting for students to reflect on, reveal, and problem-solve issues that make them feel vulnerable and to build empathy among peers. Because this setting supports a sense of acceptance and equilibrium, it can contribute to greater engagement in students' learning and the enactment of interpersonal skills for successful group work in their classes.

At the high school level, Social Justice Humanitas (a public high school in Los Angeles, CA) uses councils as a component of advisory classes to build community and create space for the practice of "listening and speaking from the heart." During councils, students and teachers sit together in a circle and take turns sharing the positive and difficult things happening in their lives.

Daily classroom-based community meetings can be paired with additional community meetings that bring students and staff together across classrooms or grades. For instance, at Valor Collegiate Academies in Nashville, TN, middle school students and staff participate in weekly meetings, called Valor Circles. Circles are single-gender groupings of about 20 students led by a mentor teacher. Circles incorporate mindfulness exercises and opportunities to share about and work on interpersonal issues. This brief video illustrates the Valor Circles in practice.

Structured weekly circle meetings create a strong school community and help students become better learners-and teachers have their own circle to work on relationships and improve their practice as well. Source: Edutopia

Similarly, Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy, a public elementary school in San Francisco, CA, uses a schoolwide program called "Families." The Families program builds relational trust and emotional support networks between students and adults to help students feel included in the lunchroom, on the playground, and in school in general. Once a month for an hour on Fridays, students participate in a cross-grade, multifaceted curriculum that includes storytelling, public speaking, and exploration of students' heritage. Building on the principle that it is important that all students be well known by the adults in the school, Families gives teachers and students alike the opportunity to build relationships with students from every grade level. "It is how they learn to play across the yard," Principal Sande Leigh said. One teacher added, "I have seen [students] since they were little bitty kid[s]." 2 Families gives teachers a chance to get to know students that they did not teach every day, and students get to know a new teacher and students from other grade levels. (See Elementary Schools for Equity for a detailed case study of Harvey Milk Academy and three other elementary schools.)

Developing Restorative Practices That Are Trauma-Informed and Healing-Oriented

Systemic approaches that create enabling conditions for safety and belonging include:

trauma-informed supports and healing practices, including means to learn about students' experiences and address their needs, as well as strategies such as mindfulness; and

restorative practices, including community circles, spaces for calming and reflecting, and means for making amends and restoring community.

Trauma-informed supports and practices

Healing and wellness can be promoted by trauma-informed practices that include strong relationships, means to learn about students' experiences so they can be understood and addressed, and mindfulness to help students center and achieve calm.

Becoming a trauma-informed and healing-oriented school involves providing administrators, educators, and other school personnel with the knowledge and preparation to recognize and respond to those impacted by traumatic stress within the school community and promote wellness for all students. As Joshua Kauffman, a school mental health specialist with Los Angeles Unified School District, describes:

Ultimately, trauma-informed schools understand and recognize that children's behavior is a developmental response to past experience, so that instead of wondering what's wrong with a child or immediately beginning to label, we start to ask the question, "What might have happened that explains this child's behavior?" And all of a sudden, when we do that, understanding can manifest and we can begin to address the underlying needs that the child may have.

The experience of trauma can disrupt the development of neurobiological integration in ways that can affect mood, skill development, learning, emotional well-being, and relational trust. Trauma can be an individual experience that occurs as a function of chronic stressors associated with poverty- such as food or housing insecurity, lack of child care, lack of health care-or any number of other traumatic events, such as illness, loss of a family member, abuse, or bullying. Trauma can also be a collective experience-and may frequently be held in marginalized communities in which families may have to contend with daily challenges of survival; frequent incidents of discrimination; or violence associated with gangs, police shootings, or other causes.

The experience of trauma can cause students to become withdrawn, angry, disruptive, inattentive, or unable to focus. They may lose confidence in themselves and in the ability of those around them to handle their needs. They may be unable to complete classwork or homework and may have less capacity to handle other stressors calmly, losing composure at seemingly small events or challenges.

While it is important to acknowledge the impact of trauma on learning, it is critical that administrators, teachers, and school personnel also implement practices that center healing on both an individual and collective level.

Attention to individual trauma, while important, may not by itself provide insight into the root causes of trauma in communities that are disproportionately affected by negative economic and environmental conditions. And a focus on trauma alone runs the risk of focusing on intervention and treatment of trauma rather than fostering the overall well-being of the individual who has experienced adversity and harm. Both the individual and collective experience of traumatic events are important. Therefore, while it is important to acknowledge the impact of trauma on learning, it is critical that administrators, teachers, and school personnel also implement practices that center healing on both an individual and collective level.

One framework for trauma-informed school practice identifies the following four characteristics:

1. Attachment-focused: Educators engage in attunement, mentoring, and a consistent ethic of care to allow students to feel safe and cared for. This promotes neural integration, which is the key to resuming healthy development and achieving success in the academic environment. Efforts within attachment-focused learning communities are more likely to be healing, allowing students to increase resilience.

2. Neurobiology-informed: Trauma-informed practitioners rely on their understanding of the neurobiology of development, stress, and trauma. This knowledge base makes it clear that students struggling in the school setting may be experiencing stressors that are school based as well as caused by out-of-school factors. Significant stress and trauma are caused by implicit and explicit social values related to aspects of social identities that are either privileged or marginalized, such as race, class, language background, dis/ability status, sexual orientation, and more. Our understanding of stress and the brain requires educators to continually re-examine existing school practices to change those that may exacerbate trauma. As described in this section, these can include disciplinary practices, grouping and tracking practices, and other sources of stigma.

3. Strengths-based: A strengths-based trauma-informed approach looks for the capacities students have developed and acknowledges the ways in which they-and often their family members-are seeking to engage, adapt, and develop resilience to adverse circumstances. Insight into broader system factors reminds trauma-informed educators not to blame caretakers, but to view each other as partners in problem-solving and healing.

4. Community-driven: Trauma-informed practice is ultimately a commitment to being in community in a manner that provides a welcome and inclusive environment fostering relational safety and well-being, the basic ingredients we all need to thrive throughout our lives. A consistent ethic of care means that the relational values educators extend to students are offered to each other as well. Caring about educator well-being is a central value, since attuned and supportive interpersonal relationships nurture their resilience and well-being, which is necessary for them to attend to student well-being.3

Importantly, school designs that are trauma- and healing-informed include structures and practices to support attachment and recognize strengths and needs by ensuring that every student is known and supported by adults who have opportunities to learn about their lives and experiences so that they can marshal assistance when needed. These include structures such as advisories, looping, and smaller learning communities. (See " Positive Developmental Relationships " for more on attachment-building structures and practices.)

For students coping with trauma or emotional challenges, schools can:

Train educators and staff to recognize students who are experiencing trauma in their lives and respond to them with caring instead of frustration or punishment.

Increase access to school counseling-one-on-one and in small groups for students dealing with similar kinds of trauma-as well as to a broader system of supports. (See "Integrated Support Systems" for more detail on designing and implementing school support systems.)

Increase outreach to families to gather information, support parents, and co-create collaborative approaches to support student health.

Create quiet spaces in classrooms or in the building for cooling down or restorative time where students can defuse and reflect, followed by opportunities for conversation.

For instance, as part of an integrated approach to promoting social and emotional learning, teachers at Lakewood Elementary School in Sunnyvale, CA, use the " Chillax Corner" strategy. The Chillax Corner offers space and activities for students to regulate their emotions when they are upset. It is a quiet area in the classroom with a table, a chair, and objects such as stress balls and fidget spinners that students can use to relax and prepare to participate in classroom activities. The Chillax Corner is introduced at the beginning of the school year and remains an important space in the classroom throughout the year where students can consistently go as they recognize the need for space and time to reflect and regulate their emotions. (See Preparing Teachers to Support Social and Emotional Learning: A Case Study of San Jose State University and Lakewood Elementary School for a closer look at these practices in action.)

Trauma-informed and healing-oriented schools implement practices that promote wellness for all students in addition to targeted supports for students dealing with trauma and other challenges. There is a range of strategies that schools can implement to reduce stress and promote physical and emotional well-being for all students. These include mindfulness and breathing practices used as a part of community meetings or lessons; breaks throughout the day that offer physical movement opportunities, such as active games, dance, yoga, martial arts, and exercise; lessons on brain science, growth mindset, stress, and healthy lifestyles in the core of elementary curriculum and secondary science and health curriculum; and classroom environments in which acknowledgment of stress and emotional issues in students' lives-shared and addressed appropriately-is simply part of the classroom culture. (See this brief video, Getting Started With Trauma-Informed Practices.)

When teachers use strategies tailored to children who have experienced trauma, all students reap the emotional and academic benefits. Source: Edutopia

The use of mindfulness strategies and other techniques for calming oneself, as well as for monitoring and redirecting attention, has been found to benefit brain architecture, learning, attention, and stress management.

Mindfulness is a particularly promising practice to consider. The use of mindfulness strategies and other techniques for calming oneself, as well as for monitoring and redirecting attention, has been found to benefit brain architecture, learning, attention, and stress management. Mindfulness practice-which focuses attention on breathing and cultivates greater awareness of one's experience infused with attention to care and compassion-and related contemplative practices have been linked to greater social and emotional competencies, including capacities for regulation, as well as reductions in stress and implicit bias.

For example, at Codman Academy, a public k-12 school in Boston, MA, teachers do a short, guided mindfulness practice when students return from the dining hall after lunch to transition from the energy of lunch and recenter themselves for learning. As one 2nd-grade student describes, "We do mindfulness because during lunch it gets a little crazy. So, when we go upstairs, we calm down so we can transfer to writing." 4 This brief video shows mindfulness in practice in one of the 2nd-grade classrooms and illustrates how one teacher accommodates students' different needs by offering choices in how they engage in the mindfulness practice.

Research shows that taking some time each day to practice mindfulness as a class helps students prepare themselves for learning. Source: Edutopia

Mindfulness strategies can also be integrated into instruction and can be designed to include both educators and school staff, which supports their self-care and stress management abilities. Pure Edge provides several free mindfulness tools that have been adopted by some districts-such as Jackson, MS, and Philadelphia, PA-and by entire states, including Delaware and Rhode Island.

Restorative practices

Restorative practices that increase safety and promote stronger academic, social, and emotional outcomes include community circles, strategies for conflict resolution, and means for making amends and restoring community.

Because efforts to support students' well-being and optimal development cannot enable meaningful long-term growth for students in environments that are otherwise authoritarian, punitive, and exclusionary, in order to create a healing-oriented environment, schools need to be able to eliminate zero-tolerance policies and exclusionary discipline and focus on educative and restorative practices.

Zero-tolerance policies that were widespread in many states and districts have led to high rates of suspension and expulsion that have also proved to be discriminatory, with students of color and students with disabilities disproportionately excluded from school. Evidence shows that this is, by and large, not because of worse behavior but because of harsher treatments for minor offenses, such as tardiness, talking in class, and other nonviolent behavior.

Restorative practices enable educators and school leaders to understand how they may unintentionally trigger or escalate problem behavior; these practices help students and staff cultivate strategies for resolving conflict and creating healthier, more positive interactions. 5 As Tiana Lee, the Alternatives to Suspensions Specialist at Brooklyn Center High School in Brooklyn, MN, described:

The impacts of suspensions were clear: Our neediest students were falling further behind, and excluding them did little to improve their behavior. But simply ending suspensions was not enough, as we had still not begun to address the root causes of students' misbehavior.

Central to a restorative justice approach is the belief that all people have worth and that it is important to build, maintain, and repair relationships within a community. 6 Restorative practices enable adults and students to resolve conflicts and to sustain relationships, contributing to the overarching goal of creating a supportive school environment. Restorative practices are also essential to a trauma-informed approach that promotes healing among students and other members of the school community.

Restorative practices are "processes that proactively build healthy relationships and a sense of community to prevent and address conflict and wrongdoing." 7 (See Figure 3.1.) Relationships and trust are supported through universal interventions such as daily classroom meetings, community- building circles, and conflict resolution strategies, which are also part of many social and emotional learning programs. (See " Development of Skills, Habits, and Mindsets " for more on these practices.) These strategies are supplemented with restorative conferences, often managed through mediation by trained staff or peers, when a challenging event has occurred.

In addition to explicit conflict resolution training for students and staff, a restorative justice approach deals with conflict through systems that allow students to reflect on any mistakes, repair damage to the community, and get counseling when needed. Creating an environment in which students learn to be responsible and are given the opportunity for agency and contribution can transform social, emotional, and academic behavior and outcomes.

Accumulating research evidence suggests that shifting to restorative practices, with robust supports to enable the adults in schools to do so, reduces the use of exclusionary discipline, resulting in fewer and less racially disparate suspensions and expulsions while also making schools safer, improving school climate and teacher-student relationships, and improving academic achievement. 8

The more comprehensive and well infused the restorative justice approach is within the school culture and ethos, the stronger the outcomes. 9 For example, a continuum model including proactive restorative exchanges, affirmative statements, informal conferences, large group circles, and restorative conferences substantially changed school culture and outcomes rapidly in one major district, as disparities in school discipline were reduced every year for each racial group, and gains were made in academic achievement across all subjects in nearly every grade level. 10

Schools that are working toward infusing restorative practices aim to create an environment that is respectful, inclusive, and supportive. Research indicates that a key strategy to fostering such a culture is to proactively nurture relationships characterized by active listening and respect among students and staff.

These restorative practices can be implemented at all grade levels. Earlier in this section, we shared the use of daily dialogue circles at Glenview Elementary School in Oakland, CA, one of the schools implementing schoolwide restorative justice practices, to check in, settle disputes, teach skills, and build community (illustrated in this video). Another approach to building these skills is shown in this Bronxdale High School vignette.

At Glenview Elementary School, dialogue circles are part of a program aimed at building collaboration, respect, and positive behavior among students. Source: Edutopia

Fostering Inclusive, Culturally Responsive Learning Environments

A 7th-grader walks by a Black History Month display at Sutton Middle School on her way to class. Photo by Allison Shelley for EDUimages.

In addition to creating consistent, caring learning environments, it takes a set of proactive efforts to ensure that these environments are inclusive for all students and are culturally responsive and affirming. Structures that can create incentives for such efforts include culturally responsive and affirming curriculum materials and activities used in heterogeneous classrooms that provide universal access to high-quality curriculum, along with socially inclusive and supportive extracurriculars. Within these structures, practices that affirm students' value, draw on their cultural resources, and dismantle stereotype threats are critically important.

Inclusive and culturally responsive learning environments

"[The teachers] treat us like people with emotions. You have real relationships with your teachers. We want to do our work because we care about our teachers."

Inclusive and culturally responsible learning environments affirm students' value by acknowledging their learning, contributions, and capacity.

It is often said that students learn as much for a teacher as from a teacher. And the teachers they learn the most from are those they believe care about them and see them as worthy of their investment. At Bronxdale High School, staff have developed explicit practices to ensure that they communicate the many ways they value each of their students, including the "Affirmation Station" shown in Figure 3.2.

As they are reinforcing a positive learning environment, teachers can affirm their students' interpersonal and problem-solving skills, even as they are helping them acquire more skills. The story in "Creating an Affirming and Emotionally Safe Learning Environment" shows how a teacher at San Francisco Community School helps her 4th- and 5th-grade students feel affirmed as she creates a safe learning environment where students can take risks, develop confidence, and grow emotionally and academically.

Directly addressing stereotype threats and creating identity-safe, culturally affirming environments improve academic performance while also strengthening belonging and a growth mindset.

At the start of this section, we described how learning is undermined when children experience a sense of threat. A particularly salient threat in our society and education systems is social identity threat, which can be triggered whenever a member of a group that is stigmatized in society feels they are at risk of being mistreated or misperceived in a given situation. 12 Both inside and outside of school, students often receive messages that they are less valued or less capable as a function of their race, ethnicity, family income, language background, immigration status, dis/ability status, gender, sexual orientation, or other status. When those views are reinforced and internalized, they can become self-fulfilling prophecies. Stereotype threat, "a type of social identity threat that occurs when one fears being judged in terms of a group-based stereotype," 13 has been found to induce the body's stress response, leading to impaired performance on school tasks and tests that does not reflect students' actual capacity.

When adults appreciate and understand students' individual experiences, assets, needs, and backgrounds, they are able to support their students in ways that counteract societal stereotypes that may undermine their confidence.

When adults appreciate and understand students' individual experiences, assets, needs, and backgrounds, they are able to support their students in ways that counteract societal stereotypes that may undermine their confidence. Such knowledge of students and respect for their backgrounds and the societal stressors on students can help teachers design instruction in ways that build their confidence and interrupt the negative effects of discrimination.

One aspect of this work is the use of multimodal teaching strategies that deliberately support success for students who learn in different ways-like those that are part of Universal Design for Learning. (See " Rich Learning Experiences and Knowledge Development " for more discussion of these strategies.) Considered essential for students with disabilities, these strategies help a wide range of learners experience success in the classroom. In addition, teachers can help affirm students by finding ways to ensure that they are able to engage in classroom activities. For example, a teacher may monitor patterns of classroom engagement and connect with those who may not actively speak up to find out how to support their participation in ways that they feel safe.

Educators can also use values affirmation interventions that guide students to reflect on and write about things most important to them-such as their relationships with friends or family, their personal interests, their personal goals for learning-during critical times during the year: the beginning of the school year, prior to tests, and before big holiday seasons or breaks. These interventions tell students that teachers want to learn about them. They also provide teachers with important information about students that enriches teachers' ability to draw on student experiences and goals in the ways they make connections in the classroom. Multiple studies have found that such strategies reduce the effect of stereotype threat among middle school students, resulting in higher academic performance for Black students for as long as 2 years after the interventions. 14

In identity-safe and affirming classrooms, teachers avoid labeling students in ways that implicitly categorize some as worthy and others as unseen or problematic, and they instead find many ways to provide positive affirmations about individual and group competence. Support for cultural pluralism that builds on students' experiences and intentionally brings students' voices and experiences into the classroom also helps create an identity-safe and engaging atmosphere for learning to take place and enables all students to have a sense of safety and belonging.

Teachers can also center projects around community engagement in ways that are culturally sustaining and affirming. (See "Connecting to the Community Through the Arts.") They may also choose and make available readings that portray different cultural experiences and foster culturally affirming learning opportunities. The Historically Responsive Literacy Framework is a tool that aids teachers in this approach.

Culturally responsive and affirming environments create the conditions for productive learning that require struggle with challenging academic content because students feel they are expected and supported to succeed.

Heterogeneous, supportive learning environments

Stronger outcomes for students are achieved through universal access to high-quality curriculum and extracurricular activities in supportive, heterogeneous learning environments.

To create a school environment that is inclusive and explicitly anti-racist, schools must identify and eliminate harmful practices that can create stigma, exacerbate stress, and hinder the development of skills and mindsets for learning. This includes practices that perpetuate negative stereotypes, bullying, or microaggressions, including punitive and unfair discipline practices. It also includes practices that segregate or shame students-such as separate lunch lines for those receiving free or reduced-price lunch; identification or shaming of students who cannot pay school fees; listing students' grades or test scores publicly; or writing names on the board to identify students for punishment if they have violated a rule, rather than engaging in restorative practices.

Finally, exclusionary practices that can communicate differential worth and undermine achievement include tracking mechanisms that exclude students from high-quality curriculum.

Decades of research show that tracking harms students by reducing achievement for those exposed to a low-level curriculum. If two students who are achieving at the same level at the start of a school year are differently tracked, evidence shows that the one tracked "up" will have higher achievement at the end of the year than the one tracked "down." Their achievement is a function of the curriculum they have experienced, not their perceived ability at a moment in time. Low- tracked classes generally create experiences of both low-level, unengaging content and stigma. Less-experienced and less-expert teachers are also typically assigned to low-tracked classes. 18 Despite evidence of the benefits of detracking, in practice, tracking remains widespread in American schools, from the segregation of "gifted and talented classes" as early as kindergarten to the creation of tracks, lanes, or streams in middle school and high school for students perceived to be following different paths to their futures. 19

Many new schools have been developed over the past three decades that have eschewed tracking, and a number of them are highlighted in this volume. Established schools have also successfully moved forward with detracking, as illustrated by Hillsdale High School's three-year conversion process from a large, traditional public school into three small learning communities with heterogeneous grouping in 9th and 10th grades, before students begin to specialize around their interests. (Learn more about Hillsdale's redesign process and that of other public high schools that have done the same in the Windows on Conversions case study series.)

High-quality learning experiences can also be provided through extracurricular activities if engaging opportunities are made available without screens or financial barriers. There is strong evidence that suggests that participating in socially supportive extracurriculars can affirm students' identities; strengthen their interpersonal skills for forming healthy relationships; and, in some cases, provide them with important future career skills and credentials. 20

Although almost every school offers extracurricular activities, such as music, academic clubs, and sports, there are certain types of extracurriculars that are less likely to be available to many students, either because they are selective (e.g., require auditions and/or restrict participation to just a few students) or because they require financial commitments or other resources for uniforms, equipment, transportation, and the like. 21 Nonacademic clubs, such as affinity groups, vocational or professional clubs, and service or hobby clubs, have been found to be less available in less affluent schools but may in fact be more socially supportive for a wider variety of students. Offering high- status extracurricular opportunities and ensuring that there are no barriers to participation can change students' lives, as the Social-Impact Robotics Club at East Palo Alto Academy shows.

Summary

In environments that are consistently caring, safe, attuned to relationships, inclusive, and culturally responsive, youth learning and well-being will be not only promoted, but empowered. There is no one formula for creating and sustaining these environments, but key structures-including co-developed norms, restorative approaches to discipline, heterogeneous classrooms and socially supportive extracurriculars, and culturally affirming learning opportunities-can increase equity of experience, opportunity, and outcomes for all students.

Where to Go for More Resources

Endnotes

1. Losen, D. J. (2015). Closing the Discipline Gap: Equitable Remedies for Excessive Exclusion. Teachers College Press.

2. Evans, K., & Vaanering, D. (2016). The Little Book of Restorative Justice in Education: Fostering Responsibility, Healing, and Hope in Schools. Good Book.

3. Augustine, C. H., Engberg, J., Grimm, G. E., Lee, E., Wang, E. L., Christianson, K., & Joseph, A. A. (2018). Can restorative practices improve school climate and curb suspensions? An evaluation of the impact of restorative practices in a mid-sized urban school district. RAND Corporation. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR2840.html; Fronius, T., Darling-Hammond, S., Sutherland, H., Guckenburg, S., Hurley, N., & Petrosino, A. (2019). Restorative justice in U.S. schools: An updated research review. WestEd. https://www.wested.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/resource-restorative-justice-in-u-s-schools-an-updated-research-review.pdf; Gregory, A., Clawson, K., Davis, A., & Gerewitz, J. (2016). The promise of restorative practices to transform teacher-student relationships and achieve equity in school discipline. Journal of Educational and Psychological Consultation, 26(4), 325-353.

4. Gonzalez, T. (2015). "Socializing Schools: Addressing Racial Disparities in Discipline Through Restorative Justice" in Losen, D. J. (Ed.). Closing the Discipline Gap: Equitable Remedies for Excessive Exclusion (pp. 151-165). Teachers College Press.

5. Major, B., & Schmader, T. (2018). "Stigma, Social Identity Threat, and Health" in Major, B., Dovidio, J. F., & Link, B. G. (Eds.). The Oxford Handbook of Stigma, Discrimination, and Health (pp. 85-104). Oxford University Press.

6. Murphy, M. C., Steele, C. M., & Gross, J. J. (2007). Signaling threat: How situational cues affect women in math, science, and engineering settings. Psychological Science, 18(10), 879-885.

7. Cohen, G. L., Garcia, J., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Apfel, N., & Brzustoski, P. (2009). Recursive processes in self-affirmation: Intervening to close the minority achievement gap. Science, 324(5925), 400-403. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1170769.

8. de Almeida, A. J. (2003). El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice Integrated Arts Project Handbook. El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, p. 3.

9. de Almeida, A. J. (2003). El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice Integrated Arts Project Handbook. El Puente Academy for Peace and Justice, p. 2.

10. Oakes, J. (2005). Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality. Yale University Press; Rubin, B. (2006). Tracking and detracking: Debates, evidence, and best practices for a heterogeneous world. Theory Into Practice, 45(1), 4-14.

11. Oakes, J. (2005). Keeping Track: How Schools Structure Inequality. Yale University Press.

12. Barber, B., Stone, M. R., Hunt, J. E., & Eccles, J. S. (2005). "Benefits of Activity Participation: The Roles of Identity Affirmation and Peer Group Norm Sharing" in Mahoney, J. L., Larson, R. W., & Eccles, J. S. (Eds.). Organized Activities as Contexts of Development: Extracurricular Activities, After-School and Community Programs (pp. 185-210). Psychology Press.

13. O'Brien, E., & Rollefson, M. (1995). Extracurricular participation and student engagement. National Center for Education Statistics Policy Issues, 95(741), 1-4.

References

For more information on the research supporting the science and pedagogical practices discussed in this section, please see these foundational articles and reports:

Cantor, P., Osher, D., Berg, J., Steyer, L., & Rose, T. (2018). Malleability, plasticity, and individuality: How children learn and develop in context. Applied Developmental Science, 23(4), 307-337. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2017.1398649(link is external) .

Darling-Hammond, L., Flook, L., Cook-Harvey, C., Barron, B. J., & Osher, D. (2019). Implications for educational practice of the science of learning and development. Applied Developmental Science, 24(2), 97-140. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2018.1537791(link is external) .

Osher, D., Cantor, P., Berg, J., Steyer, L., & Rose, T. (2018). Drivers of human development: How relationships and context shape learning and development. Applied Developmental Science, 24(1), 6-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888691.2017.1398650(link is external) .

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Environments Filled With Safety and Belonging

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Key structures and practices can cultivate supportive school environments to promote a sense of belonging and physical, emotional, and identity safety.